VH-EWR Lockheed 414-08 Hudson
IV
(c/n 6039)
This former war weary Hudson (ex A16-110) was civilianized in 1947 as
VH-JCM for Curtis-Madsen
Aircrafts Pty Ltd. It was used on
migrant charters to Europe in 1947/48. Sold to East-West Airlines
in
1950 it was re-registered VH-EWE and then as VH-BPT when that rego was
required for a DC-3 in
1956. It was converted for
cloud seeding operations under a CSIRO contract in 1957 and
re-registered
VH-EWR ("R" for Rainmaking) in
1958. It is seen above in this Geoff Goodall
photo at Essendon,
Melbourne in May 1962 with small
wording aft of the East-West Airlines titling stating "Special Projects
Division Rainmaking"
The cropped close-up at the foot of the page is from the Trevor Fuller
collection,
via Maurice Austin. In 1962
it was sold to Sepal Pty Ltd of Mascot, a division of Adastra and
re-regis-
tered VH-AGE.
The image immediately below is from the South Australian Aviation
Museum archives
and shows -EWR over the Snowy
Mountains region , circa 1961.